Tuesday Musings

Desires often get a bad reputation for being frivolous & nonsensical, dangerous to indulge. But, honestly, when we’re not able to look closely at our desires on a moment to moment basis and freely step into accessing desires that come to us, we usually end up repressing them & misunderstanding them entirely – which is a problem, because desires serve a pretty important purpose in our lives. When you CAN examine your desires, there is generally a way to fulfill them immediately, without making any changes to your life or compromising any of your relationships – most importantly, without compromising your relationship with yourself. Give this video a watch & let me know what you think.

I’ll be taking a break from Tuesday Musings, probably for the rest of 2017, definitely for the next few weeks! Don’t worry… get connected here & “like” my facebook page – there will be plenty of content coming through to hold you over. Please, email me & tell me what topics you’d like to hear about once these come back!! – info@briannamcinerny.com. Love you all, & talk soon.

Mindfulness is defined as the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something, OR, a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.

This is a common word to encounter once you’ve started a journey towards a healthier lifestyle. Still, the concept can seem pretty vague.

If mindfulness sounds light & fluffy to you, like a frivolous practice or a waste of time, the potential benefits might help you reconsider. Scientific studies have suggested that mindfulness practices (like meditation) support strong memory, emotional regulation, and communication between the left and right brain hemispheres.

Who can’t use some more brain power & better control over heavy emotions like anger, disappointment, and anxiety? Am I right?

When we feel more comfortable in the present moment, we don’t feel the need to escape our reality through unhealthy habits. We’re able to access unlimited creative ideas, have more meaningful conversations, and get more important tasks done faster. We’re able to move consistently towards our goals. Most importantly, we feel more complete and empowered as individuals, exactly as we are, regardless of our surroundings and the challenges they hold.

In this society that pushes a go-go-go mentality, a mindfulness practice has the potential to be more useful than ever. Here are some practical tips to get you started:

Become conscious of your thoughts. Meditation is a great way to do this – but you don’t need to sit in an uncomfortable position on a cushion to practice. I prefer to keep my eyes open while I meditate so that the effects translate more seamlessly into my everyday routine. Sit at your desk and look out of a window, or find a spot to sit outside, then take five minutes to focus on your breath. When thoughts creep in, just notice and let them pass by, continuing to focus on your breath. With time, your thoughts will slow and you’ll have more control over their progression. Keep a pen & paper handy to write down the amazing ideas that bubble up!

Get comfortable in your body. An essential part of mindfulness is becoming aware and tolerant of your feelings, both emotionally and physically. When we’re avoiding feeling our physical experience, we can’t be present in each passing moment. Practice this by adding an element to your step one meditation practice – after focusing on your breath, start engaging your senses. What can you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel? Notice how your thoughts naturally calm as you engage your body. Stretching, taking walks, or getting a nice long massage can help with this step.

Practice acceptance AND persistent positivity. Mindfulness depends on your ability to accept and embrace every facet of your mental, physical, & emotional experience – even the parts that seem weird or undesirable. The truth is, we ALL experience a full spectrum of thoughts, sensations, and emotions, even though we’ve been socialized to hide it from the world. To support your new awarenesses, especially the challenging parts, build a positivity practice. For example, you can start a gratitude journal. As you actively search for the silver linings & the positive aspects of your life experience, it’ll feel much easier and natural to sit comfortably in the present moment.

Lather, rinse, repeat – and enjoy this feeling of spaciousness you’ve just created.

Today we’re talking about making good decisions. EVERYONE has to make decisions, lots of them every day. Some decisions are harder than others. Whether you’re deciding what to have to breakfast, navigating an important relationship decision, or you’re deciding your next career move, it’s possible to waste a lot of time, money, & energy contemplating your choices. Staying in un undecided place because we’re too scared to commit to one choice even temporarily, keeps us stuck in life & business.So today, I’m giving you some input about how you can make high-quality, effective decisions quickly & efficiently on a regular basis. Try it out & let me know what you think in the comments! Thanks for watching.

Today we’re talking about being a good listener… discussing how to kick your listening skills up a notch, & why you should care about listening in the first place.

Everyone loves a good listener, even though they can be hard to come by – so fine-tuning this skill comes with so many advantages.

Many of the issues we face in our lives could be solved or avoided altogether with better communication – and a really huge, essential part of good communication is good listening. Without good listening, we can wind up taking actions based on misunderstandings. Then we get all twisted up in communication confusion when it’s not working like we thought it would, sometimes leading us to start all over again. (That is IF we have the opportunity to try again).

I find it’s really much better to LISTEN well the first time around!

This week’s video offers several practices you can use to become a more effective listener. Pick the most resonant one to focus on this week, & please let us know how it goes in the comments! Thanks for watching.

Today we’re talking about intentions, and how to use your intentions as a tool to create the life & impact you’d love to create. Often times, it’s the smallest shifts that can really take our efforts to the next level, and using intention-setting & intention-shifting is an amazing example of this. This can seem like a New Age-y sort of concept, which who knows, maybe you’re a fan of & maybe you’re not. And I still encourage you to give this a try & see for yourself what the impact could be for you. You can consciously choose to create the life you want in a way that feels amazing for you through the very simple practices of intention setting & intention shifting. In this video, I walk you through how to do it.

A *huge* part of the results-getting process I use with my clients is evaluating their beliefs & up-leveling them to new, more empowering beliefs. So… What do you believe about yourself? About the world? About other people? About the way things work & what’s possible for you?

Beliefs are a big piece of your “mindset” and they impact how you show up in the world. If you’re having trouble achieving something in your life, there’s a really good chance that taking a look at your subconscious beliefs can help you create some movement again. So today, we’re musing about beliefs. Why it matters, what they are, how they form, how to spot them, & how to change them so you can use them to your advantage. Leave a comment & let me know what you think!

It is very natural to compare ourselves to other people, & to feel like we’re left out as an outsider somehow. Feelings like this… “I’m not enough” or “Nobody wants me” or “I’m unlovable” are all related to core fears that we ALL experience as humans. On a primal level, we can’t survive if we’re separated from our tribe, so these feelings & fears developed to keep us safe on a very basic level. They’re actually worth celebrating. They have good intentions. Still, you deserve to feel good enough right now, & your happiness & success depend on it. You’re unique, & you offer something to the world that no-one else does.

There’s not another person on this Earth who’s exactly like you, so there’s really no use comparing. We’re all on our own individual path, and every single one of us is an essential part of the whole, even when we’re only a small part of the picture. On that note, this week’s Tuesday Musings offers some suggestions you can use to overcome comparison & start feeling good enough right now. I’ll be back with more on July 11th, talking about the first component of mental wholeness – Acceptance. Make sure to leave a comment below & tell me what you think! Thanks for watching.

This week’s Tuesday Musings video is the last in a 4-part series about structuring the creative process. To recap, we’ve discussed sparking amazing creative ideas, then choosing the “right” ideas to focus on, followed by tips for staying the course when the going gets rough. This week, we’re talking about completion – & some strategies for feeling good enough right NOW & every step of the way. It’s easy to say that we’ll celebrate & treat ourselves once we’ve succeeded at whatever we’re trying to accomplish – still, treating ourselves very well along the way is in itself an amazing strategy for success. When we don’t believe we’re good enough, we’ll sabotage & block ourselves from ever fully realizing the things we desire. This week’s video offers some suggestions for feeling good enough NOW – so you can feel complete every step of the way & fully enjoy the unpredictable process of your creation. Leave a comment & tell us what you think! See you next week.

As creative folks, it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement & inspiration of new ideas. AND, when we don’t commit to seeing any of them through, we wind up chasing ourselves in circles – which doesn’t feel very good over time, & it’s not very productive. SO… how can we pick which ideas we want to focus on? I give some suggestions in this week’s Tuesday Musings video. Next week we’ll talk even more about some strategies for seeing your choices through when they’re well underway & they don’t feel so new & exciting anymore.